From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with archive (Exim 4.43) id 1JtPKk-000439-IE for mharc-grub-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 06 May 2008 11:44:02 -0400 Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1JtPKh-00041h-TN for grub-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 06 May 2008 11:43:59 -0400 Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1JtPKf-00040p-RH for grub-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 06 May 2008 11:43:59 -0400 Received: from [199.232.76.173] (port=58973 helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1JtPKf-00040m-Nx for grub-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 06 May 2008 11:43:57 -0400 Received: from c60.cesmail.net ([216.154.195.49]) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS-1.0:RSA_ARCFOUR_SHA1:16) (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1JtPKe-0001XE-Vl for grub-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 06 May 2008 11:43:57 -0400 Received: from unknown (HELO relay.cesmail.net) ([192.168.1.81]) by c60.cesmail.net with ESMTP; 06 May 2008 11:43:55 -0400 Received: from [192.168.1.21] (static-72-92-88-10.phlapa.fios.verizon.net [72.92.88.10]) by relay.cesmail.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8343F619058 for ; Tue, 6 May 2008 11:43:54 -0400 (EDT) From: Pavel Roskin To: The development of GRUB 2 In-Reply-To: <20080506151800.GA25697@thorin> References: <4807AA02.1020909@mail.berlios.de> <20080418132858.GH29226@thorin> <480A02F3.7000504@mail.berlios.de> <20080420100713.GA16764@thorin> <1208773866.29071.11.camel@dv> <20080506151800.GA25697@thorin> Content-Type: text/plain Date: Tue, 06 May 2008 11:43:48 -0400 Message-Id: <1210088628.2796.14.camel@dv> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Evolution 2.22.1 (2.22.1-2.fc9) Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-detected-kernel: by monty-python.gnu.org: Genre and OS details not recognized. Subject: Re: retiring device.map X-BeenThere: grub-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: The development of GRUB 2 List-Id: The development of GRUB 2 List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 06 May 2008 15:44:00 -0000 On Tue, 2008-05-06 at 17:18 +0200, Robert Millan wrote: > I completely agree. How do we go about this? First of all we need support > for labels, right? We have it already in the "search" command. Of course, there is always room for improvement. GRUB doesn't recognize Linux swap labels. It cannot set root to, say, partition 3 on a disk where partition 1 has the given label. Anyway, the fix belongs to the installer. The first step would be not to use device.map is it's not needed. In other words, if it's not a cross-device install, don't read device.map and don't try to create it. The second step is figuring out what to do with cross-device installs. device.map serves as a persistent cache that can become out of date. Perhaps it could be replaced with a table in memory that only contains entries relevant to the install. device.map was more justified in the days when floppy drives were common. But if there are still realistic cases that take a lot of time (say, 10 seconds or more), we need to address that issue somehow. device.map is also used in grub-emu, but grub-emu could use a different names based on the OS device names. Finally, update-grub should be modified to look for partitions by labels. That will allow grub-emu use the same menu as the real bootloader, while using different device labels. -- Regards, Pavel Roskin